Are We Living In “Westworld?”

We are “Westworld.”

If you’re like me, you’ve spent a great part of fall 2016 musing over the new HBO series,“Westworld.”
“Westworld” is a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousnessand the evolution of sin. Set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, it explores a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged.
To put into simpler terms: “Westworld” is the name of a futuristic type of theme-park. Set in the Wild West, the park allows visitors to pretend to be part of history while being entertained by the time-period ‘locals’. The locals are actually very sophisticated robots that are given a ‘conscience.’

Spoiler Alert

I am about to discuss the finale – so SPOILER ALERT for those that are yet to see it.
All through the season, we’ve watched as the robots (called ‘hosts’) are struggling to understand their purpose and find the source of what drives them. Some of them swerve from the script the park writers designed for them. Some stick to it to the last letter. My ‘eureka’ moment, however, came at the end, when Dolores – a ‘salt-of-the-earth’ host and seemingly docility itself, discovers that the voice of Arnold (God), she’s been hearing in her head, prodding her forward, teaching and guiding her – was, in fact, her own. While, she did, in fact have a script written for her by the powers that be (park writers), it was her internal voice that either kept her to it – or urged her to deviate and actually encouraged her to make her own choices and decisions.
I had chills run down my spine as I realized that what this show portrays is our world; our humanity – our own universe as I know and understand it.
Just like “Westworld’s” hosts, humans come into their current lives with a script. The difference is, unlike in the show, where the writers are distant entities, in reality, WE are the writers. We write our own life script before we take our first breath on this planet. We choose our friends, our family our virtues and vices. Yes, we do have help from our guides. These guides are further along in their spiritual development than we are. They work with us to develop situations and affiliations that can ultimate contribute to our advancement or failure in this life. However, once here, on Earth, we, humans, have a free will.

We Have Free Will

It is that free will that either propels us to greatness or doom us to mediocrity or baseness. And yes, just like the hosts of ‘Westworld’ – we often FEEL helpless because we sense that someone is pulling the string. All we do is react to the pulls.
On the other hand, if we follow Dolores’ lead and start listening to the voices in our minds, we might just find that the ones calling the shots are us. No, not the us that are way too busy making ends meet and trying to cope with harsh realities of daily lives. It is the US that chose these harsh realities ahead of time for a reason. It is our Higher Selves that know that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger and that there is a purpose for everything in life.
If only we stopped, every now and then, and listened to our Higher Selves, then like Dolores, we would realize that we have choices. And it is by exercising a free will that these choices will manifest into our Soul’s lessons.
Unfortunately, it is often much more convenient to ‘live out a script’. If I believe that my life is predetermined – then I can’t do anything to affect it, right? It is a lot easier to follow the script handed to me than to create your own.
And so, we keep going – year after year – decade after decade; marching to someone else’s drum – dancing to someone else’s beat; while, all along, stifling the voices in our own hearts.
Is “Westworld” art imitating life – or is it, indeed, the other way around?